Just one missing piece in a puzzle is enough to take its beauty away
by EliaAlice
Summary: Post S3. Shaw / Root pairing. What will happen to them after that finale ? Here's my take at it. Multi-chapter. Ratings will evolve with the fic.


Note : Here I go again with a Shoot fic ! Multi-chapter too, and will probably end up being longer than the other one. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it :D Post-S3. And bonus points for those who can guess where Shaw's new first name comes from. The last name is pretty obvious ;)  
The updates will take longer than they did for my first fic, at least for now. It will probably be easier for me to write when I'm in holidays.  
On that note I wish you a good reading !

* * *

Shaw turned around and walked away.

No, she wasn't Sameen Shaw anymore.

She was Dani Hammer.

And she had to go home.

Or, at least, to what was now supposed to be her home.

Shaw took a deep breath and exhaled it slowly. As she turned at the corner of the street, she briefly looked at the camera on the other side of the road and for the first time, the full meaning of what had just happened hit her. What having to pretend to be a normal person was going to be like.

She had the feeling she was back in high school, when she had had to fake emotions to be more or less left alone. Not her best memories. The big difference was, back then being the weird girl in her class couldn't have gotten her killed.

But she knew she didn't have a choice.

She closed her eyes for a few seconds, just the time to fully get into character. It wasn't supposed to be that different from any undercover mission she had done before, right ?

Except this time there was no coming back to be seen.

Dani Hammer continued to make her way through the crowded streets of New York.

Never in her life had she felt so helpless.

* * *

It took her time to get to her new home, but she wasn't ready to take the bus or whatever other means of transport. She needed the walk to clear her head a little. She would have gladly run, tacking between people was something Shaw could easily do, but she had to remind herself that _Dani_ wouldn't probably do that while going home. So she forced herself to just keep a quick pace instead, already bored with her new life.

She finally found her new house in a neighborhood in Queens. It was more spacious than the flats she was used to and she wondered what her job was supposed to be for her to be able to afford a house like this one.

Dani unlocked the front door, went in and was welcomed only by darkness. The blinds were closed but she had no intention to open them at the moment, nor did she switch on the light. She slammed the door shut and just stood there for a moment while her eyes were getting used to the lack of clear view. She had always loved the darkness, and right now it was nothing less than a perfect reflection of her state of mind.

The young woman started to explore the ground floor and discovered a living room, a well-furnished kitchen and what she guessed was an office. Walking up the stairs and then along the corridor she arrived in, she opened the first door on her right onto what was obviously her bedroom. Only a dim light was peeking through the curtains but it was more than enough for her to make out the white envelope on one of the pillows. A bit wary, Dani opened it and found a letter. She recognized the writing immediately. Who else could it have been anyway ?

_Your new name is Dani Hammer, but you probably already know it. You are a vet in a clinic called "The Little Ones", it's not that far from this house. They have been informed you were moving in some time soon, supposedly from Texas; they didn't know when exactly, but they won't be surprised when you'll show up there for your first day of work._

_Now let's talk about more serious issues. You have a gun permit. I'm not sure it'll help much if anyone finds what is hidden in your closet, but it's the best I could do given that you're not supposed to be a trained agent anymore. I trust you to behave yourself for the time being anyway ;)_

The spark that had lit in Dani's eyes when she had read about some secret weaponry that seemed to be stored somewhere in this house turned frankly exasperated when she saw that smiley. A smiley. Root had dared to put a freaking SMILEY there. The worst part of it was that it was so like the hacker that Dani could literally _see_ her doing that winking thing.

How was that woman always able to find the _one_ thing that would run on her nerves, no matter how bad the situation was ?

But she couldn't do anything about it at the moment, so she just rolled her eyes and packed her pride back up.

And _of course_ she wouldn't do something stupid, her mind couldn't help but silently answer, she knew all-to-well what was at stake. But it would feel good to relax by cleaning some guns from time to time, that was something she was sure of.

When Dani realized how much her mind was starting to drift away in her thoughts, she snapped herself back to reality, focusing on the letter again and keeping on reading.

_The only technological objects you have are your computer in your office down the stairs, and the phone that's waiting for you over there. There is no camera close to this house, so as long as you're a bit cautious with these two objects in here, you're the safer from Samaritan you can ever be in this city anymore. But if you ever get screwed by It even with all the precautions I took, there's a tortuous itinerary you can use to get from here to a safe house without being seen by It. The map is hidden in your closet as well._

_When you're done reading this, there's a shredder in your office that will take very good care of this letter._

_Oh, just one more thing : don't forget to check the first bookmark on your computer. And if you could actually tick women, it would simplify quite a lot of things for me later._

_On that note, I wish you good luck in your new life. Take care, Shaw._

The latter was staring at the letter, wondering what that women thing was supposed to mean. And the last three words were resounding in her head, she could hear the hacker's words as clearly as if they had been standing side by side and Root had been saying it to her out loud. Shaw, no, Dani, she couldn't think of herself as Shaw anymore, she cursed, wondered what the other woman's new identity was.

It occurred to her that if things went soon south in spite of all the hacker's efforts to keep them safe, she might never have the answer to that question. And as much as she hated to admit it, this thought only made her feel even worse.

Not that she was truly feeling something, really, it was just a misuse of language, but still…

At this moment, the young woman was the closest to sad she had ever been. She could figure out there was something wrong with her, as if she was missing a piece, but she didn't know what that piece would be exactly. It could have been her identity, her life, being away from all the people that mattered to her, or all of the above, she really couldn't tell.

The only thing she was sure of was that she didn't get to dwell on her state of mind, because even if she did figure this out, it wouldn't improve anything. So she forced herself to block her thoughts and started concentrating on something else instead : finding out what Dani Hammer was supposed to be like. She had to be convincing for her first day at her new job.

But there was something she had to take care of first.

She walked back to her office and directly put the letter in the shredder, before turning the computer on. The light hurt her eyes a bit and she cursed. Sighing, the young woman proceeded to open the blinds on the ground floor. A normal person would not have them closed at almost noon while being up anyway. She had to stop thinking like an agent and start blending into society.

The next months were going to be awful, she just thought.

Dani started her Internet browser and clicked on her first bookmark.

"Oh please tell me that's a _joke_", she groaned. "An online dating site ? Really ?"

It seemed like even from that far away, Root was still finding efficient ways to drive her crazy. She joined the site nevertheless, not forgetting to tick men AND women. Not that she minded, really, but from her own experience most women weren't exactly up for one night stands as she liked them. And something she really didn't need for the time being was some crying sure-to-be-heartbroken-when-she-finds-out-it-was-just-for-one-night chick to deal with, while she already had to handle living her new life as Dani.

She filled the parts about her tastes with difficulty and when she was finally over with it, she got up and headed for the kitchen. All that stuff had made her hungry.

* * *

"Dani, there's an emergency coming in room 4, can you handle it ?"

"Yeah, sure, can you describe it while I'm prepping myself ?" the young woman shouted back in reply to cover the surrounding noise of the clinic. Last time she had seen Marika - the colleague she was speaking with -, the latter was pretty busy answering the phone while dealing with a tricky cat, inopportunely freed by its owner before the door of the examination room was closed and now playing hide and seek in the clinic, trying to scratch everyone that came too close to him in his opinion when he was found. All the other vets were with clients, and Dani was the one enjoying surgeries the most anyway. She checked the vitals of three dogs she had operated this morning while Marika briefed her the best she could.

"One year old cat, fell from a several floors' high balcony onto some brambles that bruised her badly and didn't even cushion the fall a bit, in shock, probable hip fracture, is losing quite a lot of blood so an artery may be hit, and there could be more about her condition I don't know because her owner was pretty incoherent on the phone anyway. Amelia will handle him and bring you the cat in surgery as soon as she can."

Amelia was one of the vet assistants of the clinic, a nice and sweet young lady who was subsequently running on Dani's nerves more often than not.

"Okay, got it, how is it going with that damn scratching cat ?" the latter asked while meticulously washing her hands in the sink with a lot of soap.

"OUCH ! Dammit where the hell did he come from ?!" she heard Marika curse as an answer. "Let's just say my hand had an unpleasant meeting with his claws right now, but he's trapped himself in a room, I'm closing the door to try and catch him. Good luck with that surgery !"

A door indeed slammed shut somewhere and Dani chuckled a little. It was really just another day in the clinic.

She more or less liked working there. It wasn't as boring as another normal job could have been, and being around cats and dogs all day was another good point. Besides, she got to do a lot of surgeries. She was the only vet in the clinic willing to spend the majority of her time in the operating room while avoiding the clients the most she could, and since it worked well that way, she had soon been given almost only surgeries to do all days long. She really wasn't going to complain about it. The less she had to deal with the owners of the pets she operated, the better – for them as much as for her, experience had proved it quite well. In the end, Root had chosen this job for her wisely.

Root. Dani hadn't heard from her since the day they had parted. It wasn't supposed to be odd : while they were driving back from that facility full of Samaritan servers, the hacker had told her she wouldn't make contact until the Machine had found a way to fully secure the communications to her implant. But even if Root had kept her voice firm and steady while explaining this, the other woman had heard in it the crack the hacker was so desperately trying to hide. Being cut off from the Machine was obviously not going to be easy for her.

Nevertheless, Dani _was_ starting to find this flying time without news slightly worrying. Samaritan could have found Root if the Machine's communications had turned out being not secured enough, but the smaller woman would never even know it had happened.

And as much as she hated to admit that, Dani _was_ worried. Of course, she convinced herself very well that it was because of how much Root had become necessary to communicate with the Machine, thus being key to the mission. Because as much as she could enjoy her vet job, the young woman indeed dearly missed that mission so connected to her real life, shooting bad guys, putting her life in danger and other stuff that could all well be summed up by : having a rush of adrenaline.

Sometimes though, there was that little annoying voice in Dani's mind saying that she might be missing Root for another reason too. The young woman always silenced it quickly. She was not worried for the hacker's safety because she felt some kind of bond with her. _She. Was. Not. _That thought was only the product of her mind's errands when she was too bored. Nothing more, nothing less.

"The cat is badly hurt. This does not look good. I put him on a drip but he has lost a lot of blood."

Dani snapped back to reality at the sound of Amelia's voice and realized she was still washing her hands without thinking. Blinking, she stopped the water and grabbed some new gloves she put on while walking to room 4.

She was starting to be worried for the hacker, it was for a pure and simple professional reason, yet it seemed she could never get Root out of her mind for very long.

* * *

She went back home late that night, something that wasn't really unusual. All the vets at the clinic were putting on extra hours regularly, and since she didn't have anything better to do – not counting drinking booze slumped on her couch -, Dani really didn't mind. She had saved that cat earlier today, earning endless thanks from the owner – she hadn't cared about it the least bit – and admiring comments from her colleagues who called it almost a miracle – those had made her shrug -, and just like that she was ready for the next emergency. Nobody really understood her in the clinic, but it wasn't as if it mattered anyway.

Some nights, Dani would go out, often with a guy met on that damn dating site, have a bit of fun and the things would end up there. She dated some women too, ones that were searching for more or less the same thing she was. So it never lasted, and Dani was very glad of this. She found out she didn't appreciate going out with women as much as she had been used to anyway. The voice deep down trying to remind her that it could be because there was another one stalking her mind was carefully silenced.

Dani opened the front door, threw her jacket on the coat rack without a look and headed directly to the fridge to take a beer, gulping half of it right after. On autopilot mode, she switched her computer on and heavily sat in her chair, waiting for her session to open.

She checked her inbox and started sorting out the important mails, deleting the other ones without even opening them. She noticed a notification from the dating site, something not that unusual in the end, and clicked on it. A small message left by someone appeared on her screen.

_"I read your profile and I kinda like you already. I hope we can have some fun together. You're cute BTW !"_

This kind of introduction wasn't unusual and it was a bored Dani that opened the link to that person's profile. Her heart missed a beat when the page loaded though.

Because the picture immediately showed her it was Root.

A kind of goofy Root, her eyes slanting a bit because of a huge grin spread all over her face, but still Root.

Dani couldn't muffle quickly enough the first thought that came to her mind at the sight of that picture. Because the hacker_ was_ really attractive on it after all. At the same time, a relieved sigh came out before she even realized it had. It seemed like nothing had gone south until now in the end.

It took just a second for the young woman to go back to scowling though, because of that kind of a flirty message Root had sent her. She had a feeling the hacker was enjoying herself way too much on this one, and if she had had to guess, she would have said this was far from over.

She was also secretly extremely glad that no one was there to see her primary reaction. It would have been a bit embarrassing.

Pretending she didn't notice how fast she started typing her reply, Dani reminded herself that there was a good reason for the relief she felt though. I was really just because Root was necessary to the mission.

Nothing more.

Right ?

The voice that had asked this question is her mind was soon silenced too. Just like so many other ones before.

Dani sent her message and got up for a run.

She really needed something to clear her mind.


End file.
